Samuelson: An Administration Bias Against Oil and Gas Revealed

The Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson looks at the record and the rhetoric of the Obama Administration and energy and finds biases overwhelming energy realism. From “The Bias Against Oil And Gas“:

Considering the brutal recession, you’d expect the Obama administration to be obsessed with creating jobs. And so it is, say the president and his supporters. The trouble is that there’s one glaring exception to their claims: the oil and natural gas industries. The administration is biased against them — a bias that makes no sense on either economic or energy grounds. Almost everyone loves to hate the world’s Exxons, but promoting domestic drilling is simply common sense.

That’s the start of this must-read Samuelson column. (They almost all are, must-read, that is). Here’s the conclusion:

Improved production techniques (example: drilling in deeper waters) have increased America’s recoverable oil and natural gas. The resistance to tapping these resources is mostly political. To many environmentalists, expanding fossil fuel production is a cardinal sin. The Obama administration often echoes this reflexive hostility. The resulting policies aim more to satisfy popular prejudice — through photo ops and sound bites — than national needs.

In between Samuelson provides the numbers to make the economic case and briefly summarizes the record of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, whose agency has been removing federal lands from consideration for energy production.

And really, you would think that an Administration that talks about jobs, jobs, jobs would be interested in sectors of the economy with a proven record of creating jobs, jobs, jobs.